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First Time someone drilled for oil
Edwin L. Drake used a steam engine to drill for oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania. In 1859, removing oil from the earth's ground became practical. That breakthrough caused an oil boom across such states as Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas. Oil was known as Black Gold (: -
The United States Accuires Alaska
William Seward arranged for the U.S. to buy Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million. Seward had some trouble persuading the House of Representatives to approve funding for the purchase. Some people thought it was silly to buy what they called “Seward’s Icebox”. Time showed how wrong they were. In 1959, Alaska became a s state. -
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Industrialization
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Granger Laws
Farmers didn't like the fact of railroad corruption. One family, the Grangers, decided to begin having the government control the railroad industry. The Grangers took polictical action by sponsoring state and local political candidates. A commission was authorized in 1877 "to establish maximum freight and passenger rates and prohibit discrimination." -
The Great Strike of 1877
Workers for the Ohio Railroad struck to protest their second wage cut in 2 months. Over 500,00 miles stopped for like a week. The work stoppage spread to other lines. Federal troops ended the srtike. -
Queen Liluokalani
Queen Liluokalani realized that her reign in Hawaii had come to an end. More than 160 U.S. sailors and marines stood ready to aid the haoels (white foreigners) who planned to overthrow the Hawaiin monarchy. In sn eloquent statement of protest, the proud monarch surrendered to the superior force of the United States. -
The U.S.S. MAINE Explodes
On February 15, 1898, the ship blew up in the harbor of Havana. More than 260 men were killed. At the time, no one really knew why the ship exploded. In 1898, however, American newspapers claimed the Spanish had blown up the ship. The journal’s headline read “ The warship Maine was split in two by an enemy’s secret infernal machine. Hearst’s paper offered a reward of $50,000 for the capture of the Spaniards who supposedly had committed the outrage. -
The Treaty of Paris
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain met in Paris to agree on a treaty. At the peace talks, Spain freed Cuba and turned over the islands of Guam in the Pacific and Puerto Rico in the West Indies to the United States. Spain also sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. -
Great Migration (The Move North)
Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans had uprooted themselves from their homes in the South and moved north to the big cities in search of jobs. -
An assasination leads to war
Archduck Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assasinated by a Serbian nationalist named Gacrilo Princip. -
German U-Boat Response
One of the worst disasters occurred when a U-boat sank the British Liner Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland.Of the 1,198 persons lost, 128 were Americans. This made Americans outraged because the loss of life and turned against Germany, and the Central Powers. -
The United States Declares war on Germany
President Wilson waited for actual overt acts to happen for them to declare war on Germany. Germany sent a message to Mexico saying that they would help out Mexico if ever gotten into a war with the U.S. that was intercepted by British Agents. -
The Flapper
Women started to change the way they thought. They started wearing shorter dresses, cutting their hair into boyish bob, dying it into black, smoking and drinking in public and began to view marriage as an equal partnership. Things that would ruin their reputation just years before. They also danced in public too. -
Babe Ruth
New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth smashed home run after home run during the 1920s. When the legendary star hit a record 60 home runs in 1927, Americans went wild. -
Consumers have less to spend
Farmers income fell.. so they bought fewer goods and services. Lots of Americans were buying less- mainly because of rising prices , stagnant wages, and unbalanced distribution of imcome and overbuying on credit in the preceeding years. -
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Changing Ways of Life
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Al Capone
1925-1931 Al Capone headed a criminal empire in Chicago. He bootlegged whiskey from Canada, operated illegal breweries in Chicago and ran a network of 10,000 speakeasies. He was aarested in 1931 for tax evasion and went to jail. That was the only crime the authorities were ever able to convict him of. -
Boulder Dam
Hoover made a dam that would power many cities like Las vegas. He used the hydroelectricity. It's the biggest dam in the world. -
Women struggle to survive
Women canned food , sew clothing and carefully managed money. They also worked hard outside the home but usually got less money than men to help out their families. -
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler offers economic stability to unemployed Germans during the Great Depression and becomes chancellor in 1933. -
The Persecution Begins
After Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all “non-Aryans” to be removed from government jobs. This order was one of the first moves in a campaign for racial purity that eventually led to the Holocaust—the systematic murder of 11 million people across Europe, more than half of whom were Jews. -
Union with Austria
German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss, or "union," with Austria was complete. The United States and the rest of the world did nothing. -
Shoot On Sight
After a German submarine fired on the U.S. destroyer Greer in the Atlantic on September 4, 1941, Roosevelt ordered navy commanders to respond. “When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike,” the president explained, “you crush him.” Roosevelt ordered the navy to shoot the German submarines on sight.
